AWSOM's guiding light dies, leaving behind his beloved dogs

While friends are mourning the sudden loss of former Animal Welfare Society of Monroe manager Mark VanGasteren, they're also trying to help the animals he left behind.

CHRISTINA TATU

While friends are mourning the sudden loss of former Animal Welfare Society of Monroe manager Mark VanGasteren, they're also trying to help the animals he left behind.

"He had the kindest, biggest heart you could ever imagine," AWSOM board member Jeannie Lee said Tuesday as she still tried to process the loss of her good friend and former colleague.

Just three weeks earlier, VanGasteren, 54, had moved from the Poconos to Genesee in Potter County, four hours from Stroudsburg, to start a no-kill shelter there.

He unexpectedly died in his new home there last week, leaving behind the four German shepherds he'd rescued over the years.

"The very thing Mark was against was kill shelters. His four dogs, he rescued from being euthanized. That's what he lived for," Lee said.

The two oldest dogs, Kendra and Shomie, are about 11 years old and will be taken in by a Bucks County veterinarian, but volunteers still need to find homes for Bear and Pee Wee, who are each about 6 years old.

AWSOM volunteers drove the nearly four hours Sunday to pick up Kendra and Shomie and bring them to their new home. Bear and Pee Wee were dropped off at AWSOM Tuesday evening, and the shelter will begin accepting applications and screening potential candidates for their adoption.

"The dogs right now are lost without him," Lee said. "We are trying to keep them together," she said. "If you take one from the other, they start to cry. That's how the two boys are right now."

In addition to the dogs, VanGasteren also left behind the unfinished business of a no-kill shelter in Potter County. As of Tuesday evening, Lee was unsure what would become of the project.

Because VanGasteren had recently arrived and was still getting settled in his new home, he made very little headway on the new shelter.

Lee remembered VanGasteren's efforts to get AWSOM up and running.

The Godfrey Ridge Drive shelter in Stroudsburg was formerly operated by the Pennsylvania SPCA, but the PSPCA closed the shelter in January 2009. It was reopened on Nov. 15, 2009, under AWSOM's management.

Prior to becoming manager, VanGasteren had been employed for 17 years as a computer technician. He had also, at that point, spent more than a decade in the animal rescue community.

"He had so much experience in the rescue world. He was friends with every rescue. When the PSPCA was open, Mark used to go in there and take the dogs out and get them adopted so they wouldn't be put down," Lee said.

It was June 2009 when VanGasteren started volunteering his time to get the AWSOM building ready for its fall 2009 debut.

"The shelter was abandoned. The place needed to have the plumbing fixed. It had no computers, it had no telephone. It was just a building with a bunch of empty cages in it," Lee said.

"He loved, loved, loved animals. Every one he could save, he would save."